Zephyrus: Greek God of the West Wind

The Story of Zephyrus

Zephyrus was the god of the west wind, the gentlest of the four winds. He was a son of the Titan Astraeus and Eos, the goddess of the dawn. His mild breezes were believed to announce the arrival of spring and help flowers bloom.

Zephyrus married the nymph Chloris, who became the goddess of flowers, known to the Romans as Flora. In Ovid's telling, he first carried her off and then made her his bride, giving her a garden of everlasting spring.

Zephyrus fathered Xanthus and Balius, the immortal horses that pulled the chariot of Achilles, with the Harpy Podarge. They were as fast as the wind. In the Iliad, Xanthus was once given a voice to warn Achilles of his coming death.

Zephyrus had a darker side as well. In one version of the myth, he loved the young Spartan prince Hyacinthus, but Hyacinthus loved Apollo instead. While Apollo and Hyacinthus played with a discus, the jealous Zephyrus blew it off course so that it struck and killed the boy, and from his blood grew the hyacinth flower.

In the story of Psyche, it was Zephyrus who gently lifted her from the mountaintop and carried her down to a flowery valley, where she found the palace of Eros. The Athenians honored him with an altar, and he appears on the Tower of the Winds in Athens scattering flowers. The Romans called him Favonius, and his name lives on in the word zephyr, a soft, gentle breeze.